Chapter 4: The First Week

Elle woke with a start, she breathed out shakily before whipping a hand across her forehead and stretching, for some reason the dream that had terrified her so badly had just slipped her mind again, for this was not the first time she'd ever seen it. She couldn't really be sure if it was the same dream, but it always made her start and she always forgot it. She sighed contently as she stretched and looked out the window at the ruddy cloud covered sky, rain still pelting the window lightly.

She glanced over at the clock and blinked stupidly. It was amazing how that stupid dream worked, she always woke up half an hour before she needed to be, oh well, at least it would give her time to get ready. She carefully climbed out of bed and silently walked over to her trunk and flipped open the lid. There wasn't much to choose from, so she quickly snatched up her uniform and hurried to the bathroom to change, on her way back she ran into a couple of third year Ravenclaws who smiled at her kindly, at least some people in this school could be nice, she thought as she remembered the Slytherins from the previous day.

As she quietly climbed the stairs of Gryffindor tower, she was pleasantly surprised to see that the other girls were just beginning to awaken. "What time is it?" Lyn grumbled as she rolled onto her back.

"Time to get up," Elle said cheerfully as she tossed her pajamas into her trunk. She carefully took hold of her wand and held it in her hands, remembering how oddly the man had looked at her in the shop. She could remember his voice, saying that it was the third of a kind and that the other two had been legendary. What was so special about an eleven inch, holly wand that happened to have a phoenix feather in it? To her it was her life, but just another ordinary wand, not something special in any way shape or form. Sighing she shook it off and tapped her hair gently with the wand, it was instantly straight, thinking for a moment she muttered the little spell that twisted her hair into a braided bun on he back of her head, nice and neat for her first day of classes.

She turned to face Lyn as she was slipped her wand into her robes, her friend was yawning non-stop, although she had managed to get dressed and fix her hair into a ponytail. She stretched again and then said: "Are we going to breakfast or what?" Elle laughed and hooker her arm into her friends and the headed down to the Great Hall. It was a long trek, but they finally made it through the double doors and found seats at the end of the Gryffindor table next to Shaun and Noel who were busy chatting about the History of Hogwarts. Lyn rolled her eyes as she began to dig into the food laid out on the table.

"So, how was your night?" Noel asked Elle as he brushed the bangs out of his eyes.

"It was fine, I was a little upset they didn't let Moon Face out of her cage," She said as she took a bite of pancake.

"Moon Face?" Shaun asked sarcastically.

"My barn owl," she said shortly, "she really hates cages." That was the end of conversation, as Elle had no wish to speak to Shaun, she just didn't like him one bit. She looked up as Henry sat down across from her.

"Goon night?" He asked sleepily, it was clear he and the other boys had stayed up later than Elle and Lyn had.

"Yes," Elle said with a smile. "Hey Henry, who's our head of house?" She asked, not sure which of the Teachers was in charge of their house and any house for that matter. Henry blinked at her for a moment before regaining his brain.

"Oh! Professor Halvord is in charge of Gryffindor. He should be coming round with the schedules soon, what with classes starting today," He was looked around at the head table but clearly didn't see who he was looking for, "Let me see, I think Ulric is still head of Slytherin so be careful if you've got classes with 'em. Hmm, I think that Professor Flora took charge of Hufflepuff, not sure," He said slowly, pointing out an older witch with a tall pointed hat on, "at bit loopy that one is. That leaves, Professor Cathol who was head of Ravenclaw last year, so I think it's still her. Not sure though," He said finally after taking a swig of pumpkin juice from his goblet. He looked down at the head of the table and frowned.

"What?" Lyn asked as she looked back and forth from the ends of the tables.

"Halvord isn't passing out the schedules, you're brother is," He said, his face morphing into a puzzled expression. "Not like him to give the job to the Prefects."

"Something must've come up," Elle said as she bit into a sausage.

"So, what's the best class in your opinion?" Shaun asked Henry as he found an opening. The boys went on to talk about classes and it really bugged Elle. Shaun talked about some books he'd read regarding the school and some of its little bits of trivia, she found it all extremely annoying. She zoned until she was handed a piece of parchment by Lyn's eldest brother, she took it and put her head together with Lyn's as they looked over the schedule.

The caretaker Mr. Trig was like a hawk, hovering in the corridors watching for any one to cause trouble, and he had help too, a crazy old cat who would chase you around as it watched you. It was pretty selective so Elle didn't worry about Mason too much; he was a pretty sweet cat sometimes. He was a scruffy tabby cat with little yellow eyes who enjoyed sitting on top of the clocks and watching you walk past. Most of the students hated Mr. Trig for how strict he was and how annoying he could be, but mostly everybody liked Mason.

To Elle the worst part was the staircases; there were a hundred and forty-two of them (or so said Shaun) that continually changed position making finding classes very difficult. Once you did manage to find the room the classes themselves were quite an adventure.

Every Wednesday night they studied the night sky and learned the names of stars and planets with Professor Mars while every Saturday night they had Astrology with Professor Neptune where they learned how the stars affected their lives. Four times a week they headed out to the Greenhouses behind the school and studied Herbology with Professor Flora (who was head of Hufflepuff), which Elle found mildly boring because she wasn't very interested in the boring plants they were learning about.

Easily the class that she found the most boring had to be History of Magic, which they had twice a week, and it was the only class taught by a ghost. It had been a slight shock to Elle when she'd first walked into the classroom and met Professor Binns who'd given a yelp and disappeared through the floor, mumbling something about 'she looks just like him'. When he was teaching he had no emotion to his voice and sent most of the kids to sleep, but Elle managed to stay awake and take down notes that helped to spell out the difference between Willy the Wise and Tilly the Silly.

Professor Cathol, the Charms teacher, was a very, very tall witch with long purple hair that was accented by her lilac robes. Elle found that there were two Professor Cathols, the one who enjoyed her students and the other that loathed being there with so many pesky little brats. Often times she'd stand at the back of the class and shout at some one for doing something (like sticking gum on the underside of the desk) because they thought the wasn't in the room.

Professor Hemming was one of their favorite teachers. She was the transfiguration teacher who acted very much like a student herself. Though she had her rules, Hemming loved her students and all their little personalities. Every one was most excited about Transfiguration after Hemming turned her desk into a little Shetland pony then back again before turning Noel's desk into a baby elephant and back. She smirked and said: "Transfiguration is some of the most complex and dangerous magic you'll learn here, and if its not done properly could mean death to any one of you. Any one messing around in my class gets the boot and doesn't come back, but if you do well, you just might learn a few tricks." At the end she flicked her wand and turned Nina's blue hair clip into a great big blue butterfly. Making all the girls ooh and ah.

Defense Against the Dark Arts was by far their favorite, however, when all the girls caught sight of Professor Halvord who was not at all bad looking. Elle was able to grab one of the front desks with Lyn as they entered the class. "Well, isn't this charming? Fresh meat for the cutting board! Welcome to Defense Against the Dark Arts! I'm Professor Halvord and I'm only about 13 years older than yourselves, I know a shock isn't it?" He said playfully as he walked down the row of desk, he was extremely good looking with longish bark brown hair and intense blue eyes that froze some people with their stair. It was a pretty basic class that started off with note taking, but Elle found it quite fun. He would quiz the students on little bits of trivia that had to do with some basic defensive spells and their effects. Elle did; however, feel as if she'd met Professor Halvord already, it was an odd felling.

Thursday was very important to the first year Gryffindors because it was their first potions class of the year, and Elle was terrified for some odd reason. She didn't know if it was the Professor himself or just the thought of having a class she had no clue what to do in. She and Lyn grabbed seats next to Noel and Blake who'd they had become friends with.

"I'm really worried about Potions today," Blake confessed as they were all seated, " I mean, Professor Ulric is head of Slytherin right? Isn't Slytherin like the sworn enemy of Gryffindor?"

"Henry says he's really cool," Elle said as she munched on a piece of toast.

"Yeah, even if he's a tad scary looking," Lyn said with her mouth full, "my brother says he's a pretty even guy, doesn't really favor anybody." As she finished her sentence the mail came. Elle was used to this now, though on the first day it had scared the wits out of her when the hundreds of owls had streamed down to their owners, dropping letters or packages. Elle had gotten a letter from Ms. Fawn saying how she'd taken in some new orphans, but other than Moon Face had been almost non existent, and this morning Elle didn't even notice her coming in. The barn owl snapped at her finger making Elle jump before she looked at the owl, it had a small package ready for her. Her heart leaped as she recognized the even script on the note card.

"Oh my god!" Elle gasped as she untied the string that held the white paper together and it fell away to reveal a little box with the same even script. She carefully opened the box and gasped at the beautiful silver hear shaped locket that lay inside on a thick silver chain.

"Wow!" Lyn said as she spied the necklace, "who's it from?" She stared at Elle stupidly before she could find words.

"My parents," The words were no more than a whisper as she was in disbelief, she tucked her hand in her pocket and fingered the little note that had been on the first parcel she'd gotten.

"How do you know, I thought you were an orphan?" Shaun asked as he leaned over the table to get a look at the necklace. "There's also no signature, how could you know its not some trick?"

"'Cause of this!" She snapped as she took the other note out of her pocket and held the two next to each other, "Same handwriting and everything! It even says: To Ella. No one calls me Ella and when I asked my guardian why she said it was because only my parents had ever called me that and she didn't want to take their place. Understand genius?" Elle really, really didn't like Shaun at this point he was too nosy for her taste.

"Well," Lyn said, "put it on! Let's see how it looks!" Elle nodded and picked up the locket but dropped it immediately as her vision flashed. "What's wrong?" Lyn asked worriedly.

"Nothing," Elle said as she carefully picked it up again, but nothing happened. She tried to open the locket, but it wouldn't come unfastened and she scowled at it a moment before she inspected the inscriptions on it. On one side it said: E, and on the other it said: H.

"What's that?" Noel asked as he nodded to the box, another note sat inside it. Elle set down the locket before she unfolded the parchment. She was speechless and had to let Lyn read it out loud. "It says: Ella, this belonged to your mother, keep it say, it is your key. What does that mean?"

"I have no idea," Elle said as she again carefully picked up the locket and fastened it around her neck. "Well, how does it look?" She got approval from all of her friends and even an admiring glance from the twins as they walked out of the Great Hall and head down to the dungeons where their Potions class would be held, and it was absolutely infuriating to Elle.

The classroom was large, round and extremely cold. It would also have been much less creepy without the eerie green and blue lights that spiraled the room in thin strips that glittered like a reflection off water. These lights illuminated the cracked glass mirrors that lined the walls in the place of windows. It was also really creepy because of all the glass jars behind the Professor's desk that held all type of different things Elle didn't even want to know and an odd green flame burned in the grate at the back of the room.

Ulric was the first to do a roll call, and paused when he reached Elle's name, he paused slightly and looked up at her crossly. She then got the feeling that he had some dislike of her, but she had no clue how wrong she was. "Ah yes, another one of the Hawkins orphans," he said coolly. Elle heard Sierra Lestrange and her friends snicker at his remark. He finished calling names before he set the list down and spun to face Elle, his eyes were a strange shade of gray that held all the coldness she'd ever known, and she felt her vision flash again, but only slightly. Take her and run. She blinked as the voice shouted in her head; it sounded something like Professor Halvord, only a slightly younger version of his voice.

"Let's see if you're any smarter than your idiot brother Edward," He said as she strode to Elle's desk, "tell me Ellerianna, What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"

Elle knew this trick, Will had been nice enough to warn her about it, but she'd been bored enough to read her entire potions book last night, "Asphodel and wormwood make a sleeping potion so strong it is known as the Draught of Living Death." She glared at him as he gave her a smirk.

"True," he turned away and that the end of his interrogation and Elle felt like she'd won big time. "By the way, 5 points to Gryffindor," he said over his shoulder. The class went downhill form there. Noel was scared to death of Professor Ulric and everything to do with potions (it was also extremely dangerous for Noel to do the most simplest of spells, he had little magical talent). He misread the directions and made the mistake of adding the hunks of birch bark before the beat pulp and set the entire mix on fire. Elle was then the one who had to fix it, for some reason every question Professor Ulric had was directed at her and after a while she refused to answer, it was juts plain irritating. Finally class ended and Elle was the first one out.

Friday was one of their best Herbology lessons; it was actually out in the Forbidden Forest. Alphonse was there to help keep watch as the first years scrambled around a clearing documenting all the different basic plants that were in the area. In this short lesson, Elle found herself talking with Alphonse for most of it (Lyn had had an allergic reaction to something on their way into the forest). He helped her identify a vine plant she'd never seen before, and some how they got onto the subject of magical segregation and the bias against nearly human creatures.

"I really find it quite troublesome," Alphonse said as he looked up at the sky to gauge the time.

"I think it's unfair," Elle said. She was sitting on a fallen log, her legs swinging over the side, "Centaurs are some of the wisest creatures on earth, a little cryptic at times, but very cool by my standards."

"Thank you, Elle," he said carefully. It was very difficult for Alphonse to be informal, it was a struggle, but she applauded him.

"Nice work! See, soon enough you'll be talkin' jus' like us!" Elle joked as Alphonse shook his head.

"If I ever use such language I think I should sooner end myself!" Elle laughed, she found Alphonse to be very interesting and a joy to be around. It wouldn't be long till she had an easier name for him other than 'Alphonse'.

"Hey Fonzi," She slapped her hands over her mouth, she hadn't meant to call him that.

"No, Elle! I like it! If I'm going to call you by your nickname, I should have one as well. If we are going to remain friends it seems only normal. I do believe, however, that we should soon be returning to the school," He turned to call to the Professor, "Professor Flora, it is getting late, we should return to the school."

"Thank you Alphonse! You heard that! Pack up you lot!" With that they headed back up to the school and Elle chalked another name up on the friends board!